VOLBEAT: New Video Interview With MICHAEL POULSEN

Musician Photo Journal conducted an interview with vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen of Danish metal rock ‘n’ rollers VOLBEAT before the band’s June 23 concert in Clifton Park, New York with HELLYEAH and ICED EARTH. You can now watch the chat below.

In a recent interview with Lithium Magazine, Poulsen stated about the current tour with HELLYEAH and ICED EARTH, “This lineup, I’m really digging it. I’m very proud of it, because when we decided to do this run, our touring management sent out e-mails to different booking agencies saying that this VOLBEAT run was going to happen, and that [we] were looking for support bands. There were some really great names on that list. I was surprised because many of the names on the list that came back could easily do their own run, you know? That was a huge compliment. When I saw ICED EARTH and HELLYEAH were on the list, I went, ‘What!?’ I’m a huge ICED EARTH fan. I’m really good friends with Jon Schaffer. For some time now we’ve been talking about doing something together, but I wanted to bring ICED EARTH to Europe. We play arenas in Europe and it would be cool to have ICED EARTH with us there. ICED EARTH can headline themselves in America, and do well… do really well. So I was feeling, ‘You guys don’t have to support us.’ The same thing goes for HELLYEAH. They’ve got something cooking now, and they, of course, have Vinnie Paul. They’re our good friends as well and they do good albums. The whole thing was that we’re friends with those guys. I think they all felt like, ‘We didn’t care if it was a supporting show. We just want to play with you guys. It’s a great package.’ We’d been talking about doing this, but every time I brought it up I was talking about Europe. Now that they want to do it in the USA, it’s a compliment to us that they want to do it together. We’re very, very thankful for that. It’s going to be great — great to be among bands that you like and that you like personally. It’s friends, and it’s really nice.”

VOLBEAT recently parted ways with guitarist Thomas Bredahl, who had been a member of the band since 2006. He has since been replaced on the road by MERCYFUL FATE‘s Hank Shermann